Small fire at Greensburg nursing home shuts AC off for residents

Updated: May 30, 2013 - 4:38 PM

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Small fire at Greensburg nursing home shuts AC off for residents

GREENSBURG, Pa. - Residents of a nursing home in Westmoreland County were forced to find alternative ways to stay cool in the midst of Thursday’s high temperatures after the building’s air conditioning stopped working.

Emergency crews responded to reports of a small fire Thursday morning in the air conditioning unit in the basement of Westmoreland Manor in Greensburg. Firefighters extinguished the flames, but discovered that the air conditioning system was shut off completely as a result of the flames.

Westmoreland Manor staff worked quickly to bring fans and portable AC units to all four floors of the facility housing about 460 elderly residents.

Administrator Maggie Harper said, “We do have one area that still has a separate chiller, in our chapel area, so we have a cool space if we have any residents that are having any problems, we can do that.”

The temperatures on each of the nursing home’s floors were regularly monitored to ensure they did not reach a dangerous level.

A backup air conditioning unit was expected to be installed Thursday afternoon.